KINGSTON >> High schoolers making a profit on slices of pizza is a no-no, the Kingston school board has decided.

Additions made by the board this week to Kingston High School’s “Jefferson Student Code of Conduct” include a prohibition on “unauthorized sale or vending on school property.” Some of the changes also deal with the more serious issue of students using nicotine and synthetic, prescription and over-the-counter drugs.

Board member Maureen Bowers said the food rule aims to stop students who have off-campus privileges from buying pizza and other edibles at nearby businesses, coming back onto school grounds and selling them at a monetary gain to students who don’t have the privilege.

“The issue was going off campus and some ... students buying (slices of) pizza and coming back and selling them,” Bowers said. “So you could say on the one hand, they were really very ingenious, but on the other hand, it’s not what we really want the students to do on campus.”

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There are several restaurants within walking distance of the high school on Broadway in Midtown Kingston that sell lunch food and are popular among students.

Other prohibitions added to the Jefferson Code include:

• Using or possessing tobacco and/or nicotine on school premises or during school-sponsored activities.

• Distributing, selling or manufacturing controlled illegal or synthetic substances or inappropriately using either prescription or over-the-counter medicines.

• Possessing, using or being under the influence of controlled illegal or synthetic substances.

• Willfully committing actions or using language that substantially disrupt the normal operations of school.

Bowers said the addition of the nicotine rule was intended to deal with the growing popularity of e-cigarettes as an openly sold product, while banning synthetic substances, also known as designer drugs, was intended to combat products that are chemically modified.

Parents Association representative Madeline Hoetger said there were some objections to new rules, such as the requirement that administrators be notified when over-the-counter medicines are brought to school.

“Many parents do send allergy medicine and Children’s Tylenol with their students to school, and they didn’t want it to be viewed as inappropriate,” she said.

Hoetger said some members of the Parents Association also were also concerned that the phrase “unauthorized medicines” does not clearly identify substances that need to be reported.

Bowers acknowledge the language was intentionally broad.

“There’s definitely a little bit of ambiguity, but it is purposeful so students can be treated individually and not all treated as the same,” she said.